BEIJING - A team of 14 Chinese police officers returned to Beijing on Tuesday after finishing a year-long peacekeeping mission in South Sudan, the Ministry of Public Security said.

The team was the first Chinese peacekeeping team to join the United Nations peacekeeping force in South Sudan.

The team accomplished all of the tasks mandated by the UN and all of its members received medals from the UN, the ministry said.

Since January 2000, China has sent 1,771 police officers on eight peacekeeping missions in East Timor, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Liberia, Afghanistan, Sudan, Haiti and South Sudan.